Sometimes, you’ll see a comedian so bad, so poor, so earth-shatteringly unfunny that you’ll ask yourself: is this supposed to happen? Fortunately for Jacob Edwards, it is part of the act. In fact, Edwards is very good at pretending to be very bad, so good in fact that one suspects the unimpressed audience member on the front row who kept checking his watch wasn’t in on the joke.
Edwards’ show consists of a series of one-man sketches exploring a pantheon of comic creations. Most are variations on the idiotic comedian archetype made infamous by Ricky Gervais; we have a first-time stand-up who may or may not have killed a person; an ultra-confident, sleazebag nightclub comic; and a wonderfully awkward, unaware conference host who tries to fish the audience onto stage with a rod and net and who snorts with laughter at his own jokes.
Despite including little thematic variation, Faux Latino manages to avoid stretching out the humour, chopping and changing enough to keep the crowd on their toes. Such a show does ask quite a lot of an audience however and it takes a certain suspension of disbelief to allow Edwards to continue mining the same comic vein for an entire hour. This genre of comedy, relying heavily on awkward, guilty laughs, is bound to divide audiences and it’s not a huge surprise that the show isn’t pulling in headcounts on a weekend, when it corners itself in such a small niche.
Still, Edwards manages to pace the show with poise and the evening’s climax – a charity man auction which ridicules the unlucky audience members dragged on stage – was brilliant. The entire show was soundtracked perfectly and Edwards is adept at mixing character comedy with sound gags. Whilst Faux Latino is a very funny show in parts, this narrowly-aimed comedy will inevitably hamper its ability to appeal to wider audiences. This pony may just be a bit too knackered for the long haul.
